#043 Jul 1995

THE INTER-SOCIETY FOR THE ELECTRONIC ARTS
THE ISEA NEWSLETTER
#43 JULY 1995
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Editors: Dirk Boon, Wim van der Plas (Holland). Correspondents: Yoshiyuki
Abe (Japan), Ray Archee (Australia), Peter Beyls (Belgium), Leslie Bishko
(US/Canada), Paul Brown (Australia), Annick Bureaud (France), Jurgen Claus
(Germany), Roger Malina (US), Rejane Spitz (Brazil).
Lay-out: Rene Pare (Grafico de Poost). Text editors: Ray Archee, Seth
Shostak. Honorary Member: Herbert W. Franke
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ISEA, POB 8656, 3009 AR Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Tel/fax 31-10-4778605,
Email: ISEA@MBR.FRG.EUR.NL (Board) or ISEA@SARA.NL (Newsletter)
WWW URL http://www.xs4all.nl/~isea
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CONTENTS
EDITORIAL . ISEA-ISAST MEETING AT SIGGRAPH . ISEA BRASIL SITE . HW FRANKE:
BIBLIOGRAPHY . ARS ELECTRONICA ANNOUNCES CHANGES . ARTIST/DESIGNER SKETCHES
AT SIGGRAPH . ARTLAB . KIP . CYBERSTAR '95 . 220V ELECTRO CLIPS . CONFERENCE
ON ARCHITECTURE . PUBLICATIONS . WWW . CALLS FOR PARTICIPATION . CALENDAR
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EDITORIAL
Wim van der Plas
Recently, several representatives of ISEA visited Ars Electronica in Austria.
During an accompanying press conference, ISEA95 presented their program for
Montreal in September and ISEA96 presented a preliminary version of their
Call for Papers & Participation. The Call can be found on the ISEA Website
(http://www.xs4all.nl/~isea). The printed version will be distributed in
August, at Siggraph and world-wide via airmail.
More on the Siggraph meeting in this Newsletter.
We brought a lot of information home from Austria. You will find it in an
article on Ars, as well as throughout the Newsletter, distilled from the
brochures we picked up. It is interesting to note that most of this
information was in German and concerns activities in German-speaking
countries. It has almost made this issue into a 'German Special.'
VOLUNTEERS WANTED
The Inter-Society urgently needs more volunteers to help. Remember the
editors of this Newsletter are volunteers. The Board consists of volunteers.
Nobody gets paid. There will be rewards though: free ISEA membership (so
called Working Membership), knowledge, experience and contacts.
-We most urgently need someone to help do the ISEA administration.
Just a few hours' work per week. Some bookkeeping skills might help.
For this job we need a Dutch person (residing in Holland, that is).
-Another job is the maintenance of our Web site. We want to include back
issues of the Newsletter at the site, in HTML, so that links can be provided
to the Web addresses and e-mail addresses mentioned in those Newsletters.
-Help is also needed for the organization of ISEA96 in Rotterdam, The
Netherlands.
Please Help! Contact Wim van der Plas or Dirk Boon at the Inter-
Society addresses mentioned in this Newsletter.
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ISEA-ISAST Meeting at SIGGRAPH
The meeting of the Inter-Society and its sister organization ISAST
(International Association for the Arts, Sciences & Technology) at SIGGRAPH,
the International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques,
has become an annual tradition. SIGGRAPH will be held this year from August
6-11 in the L.A. Convention Center, Los Angeles, USA.
This is the agenda:
-Introduction 5 min.
-ISEA95, Montreal 15 min.
-ISEA96, Rotterdam 10 min.
-ISEA97, Chicago 5 min.
-ISAST/LEONARDO announcements 20 min.
-Other announcements 30 min.
The meeting was set up this time by Cynthia Rubin (ISEA95). She writes:
'The ISEA-ISAST meeting at SIGGRAPH will be on Thursday, at 12:15, in room
511BC in the Convention Center. This will be followed by a meeting with the
SIGGRAPH Art Task Force.
We will have to start on time - I suggest that we tell people to pay
attention to leave the morning sessions before the questions, to pick up some
lunch, and then come to our meeting. Otherwise we will not get through the
meeting with the Art Task Force before the afternoon sessions start at 1:45.
But at least we are generally not conflicting with anything else, so I think
that this is the ideal time.'
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ISEA BRASIL SITE
Rejane Spitz
We are in the process of creating the ISEA Brazil WWW pages - we have already
collected works and info from about 20 Brazilian artists (to start with),
which we are now digitalizing. We hope we will finish everything before
ISEA'95. Our server is at PUC-RIO University - we will be linked to PUC-Rio's
homepage, and we will link to ISEA in Holland too.
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H.W. FRANKE: BIBLIOGRAPHY
In Newsletter #42, we told you about ISEA's first Honorary Member, Herbert.
W. Franke. By mistake, we gave a wrong title for one of his books: instead of
"Machine Art", the title should have been "Apparative Kunst." Here is a
selected bibliography of Herbert's books on art. Not included are his (other)
scientific books and the (science) fiction he published.
-'Kunst und Konstruktion', F. Bruckmann Munich, 1957
-'Phaenomen Kunst', Heinz Moos Verlag Munich, 1967
-'Computergraphik-Computerkunst', Bruckmann, 1971 *)
-'Apparative Kunst, vom Kaleidoskop zum Computer', co-author with
Gottfried Jager, DuMont Koeln, 1973
-'Computergrafik-Galerie, Bilder nach Programm-Kunst im elektronischen
Zeitalter', DuMont Koeln, 1984
-'Leonardo 2000', Neubearbeitung von 'Kunst Kontra Technik', Suhrkamp
Frankfurt/Main, 1987
-'Die Welt der Mathematik, Computergrafik zwischen Wissenschaft und Kunst',
VDI Verlag Duesseldorf, 1988
-'Digitale Visionen', IBM Deutschland, 1989
-'Das P-Prinzip, Naturgesetze im Rechnenden Raum', Insel Frankfurt/Main, 1995
-'Wege zur Computerkunst', Edition die Donau hinunter Wien/St.Peter am
Wimberg, 1995
*) Translated in English and available in the UK and the USA
under the title 'Computer Graphics - Computer Art'.
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ARS ELECTRONICA ANNOUNCES CHANGES
Wim van der Plas
During the last day of Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria, June 19-23) a rather
shocking change was announced. This oldest and largest of the electronic art
festivals (mind: the ISEA symposia are not essentially festivals) was, up to
now, a collaboration of the Brucknerhaus (or rather LIVA, the foundation that
exploits the Brucknerhaus) and the ORF, the National Austrian Broadcasting
Corporation. The substantial prizes that can be won in the Ars Electronica
art competitions, were, until recently, sponsored by Siemens Corporation.
That role was, however, taken over by several other companies, among
which the local energy company. This company is also the financial sponsor
of the Ars Electronica Museum, a unique museum on electronic art, under
construction directly at the other side of the Danube River.
During a press conference on the last day of Ars Electronica, it was
announced that from now on, the LIVA (the Brucknerhaus) will no longer be
on the board of Ars Electronica. Instead, the energy company will be
represented. This not only means the Brucknerhaus may no longer be the main
location of the Festival, it also means the end of the important role
artistic director Peter Weibel played in the shaping of the content of the
successive Ars Electronicas. Of course, Weibel's reaction was one of
disappointment. In his opinion these changes will mean Ars Electronica will
become more popularized and more commercial.
AE95
The content of Ars Electronica '95 showed an important shift from real to
virtual space. A large part of the exhibition consisted of computers with WWW
access. A new catagory in the competition was 'WWW-sites' (replacing the old
category 'computer graphics'). The winners of the competition are listed
below. They are "the best and most interesting WWW Sites", according to Ars
Electronica. However, in some cases one wonders what their relation to art
might be.
This question is also valid for a large part of the Symposium held in the
Brucknerhaus. A lecture by John Perry Barlow on the 'revolutionary impact' of
the (widespread use of the) Internet, was typical: he never mentioned the
word art. Some speakers even showed considerable ignorance of art. Frank
Ogden, for example, maintained that printed books would soon disappear, not
only because publishers of printed media cannot compete with the electronic
media (which may be right), but also because "nobody will want to read a book
if they can live through the adventures themselves using VR techniques". One
wonders what kind of books Ogden reads, if any.
On the other hand, excellent work was presented by Bill Seaman (interactive
installation), Michael Tolson (interactive computer animation), Granular
Synthesis (performance), Trevor Wilson and Gilles Gobeil (computer music) and
others. It certainly would be a tremendous loss if Ars Electronica no longer
reaches the high artistic and philosophical levels it has maintained
throughout the years.
AE: Winning Web Sites
These are the Web sites that won the Ars Electronica competition:
http://skyler.arc.ab.ca/~jamesm/IF/IF.shtml (IDEA Futures)
http://kermighan.imc.akh-wien.ac.at/tO/tO/tOhome.htm (tO Public Netbase)
http://ringo.media.mit.edu/ringo.html (Ringo + +)
http.//www.well.com:80/user/gunafa/index.html (Station Rose Homepage)
http://fileroom.aaup.uic.edu/FILEROOM.html (The File Room)
http://sunsite.unc.edu/otis.html (OTIS)
http://www.nd.edu/~art/jdoe/stef.htm (Face to Face)
http://www.hotwired.com (HotWired)
http://www.rl.af.mil:8001/Odds-n-Ends/sbcam/rlsbcam.html (Snowball Camera)
http://rs560.cl.msu.edu/weather (Current Weather Maps)
http://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/cgi-bin/aMAZEingweb (aMAZEingweb)
http://ziris.syr.edu/home.html ((Digital Art Endeavors)
http://www.digicash.com (DigiCash)
http://www.hfbk.uni-hamburg.de/Tele,atikWWW/twg/KaspaH/KaspaHome.html
(KaspaH's Home)
http://www.oeh.uni-linz.ac.at:8001/~chris/HATE/hate.html (Mircosoft Hate
Page)
By the way, this is Ars Electronica's own Web site address:
http://www.ars.co.at/ars
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ARTIST/DESIGNER SKETCHES AT SIGGRAPH
A new program at SIGGRAPH this year is the 'Artist/Designer sketches'.
The Art Chair of SIGGRAPH '95, Ken O'Connell, set this up, partly as a
response to the artist's criticism last year (see our September '94
Newsletter). Chair is Eduardo Kac
Wednesday August 10 10-11.30 a.m.
Lane Hall, Lisa Moline, James Faure Walker, John F. Sherman
Thurday 8.30-10 a.mm
Rodrigo Toledo, Susan Metros, Bill Barminski
10-12 a.m.
Jon McCormack, Yoichiro Kawaguchi, Jill Smith, Phil Dench,
Christa Sommerer, Laurent Mignonneau
Friday 8.30-10.30 a.m.
Paul Danset, Brad Brace, Richard Navin, Nancy Earle-Navin
10 a.m.-12.15 p.m.
Lev Manovich, Tim Druckrey, Machiko Kusahara, Erkki Huhtamo
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ARTLAB
'ARTLAB is a project of the Social and Cultural Program Operations Center of
Canon Inc. in Japan. It started in 1991. It employs digital technology that
Canon is promoting and serves as a laboratory (experimental studio) for
pioneering a new art domain where art and science can be fused. The Artlab
helps with the creation ofand exhibition of collaborative art works between
artists and Canon's computer engineers and the introduction and spreading of
media art. The Artlab also supplies equipment and financial support, as well
as holding workshops and lectures. 'See the 'Video Spaces' announcement in
the Calendar in this Newsletter for one of Artlab's projects, by Teiji
Furuhashi. They are announcing an Internet project for next Autumn.
ARTLAB, DK Bldg. 5 Fl., 7-18-23 Roppongi Minato-ku Tokyo 106, Japan
Tel 83-3-34784161, fax 54103615
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KIP - THE KNOWBOTIC INTERFACE PROJECT
'The Knowbotic Interface Project of Dr. Doeben-Henisch and his team of the
Institute for New Media in Frankfurt, Germany is a research project that aims
at improving communication between humans and artificial intelligence.
Artificial intelligence, in this case, means autonomously learning agents,
'Knowbots'. A philosophical experiment on the road to digital consciousness.'
Contact:
Dr. Gerd Doeben-Henisch, INM - Institut fuer Neue Medien, Daimlerstrasse 32,
D-60314, Frankfurt, Germany. Tel: 49-69-941963-10, Fax: -22, E-mail
doeb@inm.de Web Site: http://www.inm.de
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RESULTS OF THE "CYBERSTAR'95" - COMPETITION ON INTERACTIVE CONCEPTS
First prize, three-month-scholarship at GMD plus 14.000 DM
PARAMATRIX
by Henry Schmidt and Benjamin Seide
This entry by a young German team reflected both the spirit and the
technological challenge of navigating the future communication space.
Designed as an open interface that grows like a virtual organism and
supported by friendly "teddy-bear agents" representing the media memory
of the user.Paramatrix bridges the world of MTV and the world of
Internet. The jury believes that this project represents the generation
that will eventually become both passengers and drivers on the
information highway.
Second prizes, 7.000 DM
THE TRACE, REMOTE INSINUATED PRESENCE
by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, coll. Will Bauer
A powerful media study in "Cyber-Presence" - the implications of the
extension of body and mind through telepresence. Virtual space and real
space, virtual space and real space, virtual body and real body merge in
a new tele-virtuality that reaches where televison will probably never
go.
THE VENUS HOME PAGE
by Lynn Hershman Leeson
Based on the creation of a virtual "Cyber-Character",
made up of selected fragments ("digital DNA") from random
collaboration of Internet users who contribute to the
character, VENUS HOME PAGE is designed to grow into a
nonlinear TV-mini-series. It adresses issues of identitiy,
gender, self-prsentation and the perils of network overload.
NEIGHBOURHOOD WORKS
by Dan Northrup
Rooted in community video, this project emphasizes local
content and the use of new media to strengthen community
ties. Recognizing that the acceptance of interactive network
services will largely depend on their community self
expression qualities, this "Cyber-Community" project seems
highly relevant.
The jury also likes to mention:
THE CYBERSPHINX
by Catherine Ikam and Louis Fleri
It develops the concept of the oracle, that in an interactive
TV context could serve as "Cyber-Face" - a satirical metaphor
of the all-knowing TV-god as well as the all-powerful gatekeeper
of the networks."
Here you find more information about the first "Cyberstar"
Competition on interactive concepts:
http://viswiz.gmd.de/VMSD/PAGES.en/actual.cyberstar.html
http://viswiz.gmd.de/VMSD/PAGES.en/cyst95.hitlist.html
http://viswiz.gmd.de/VMSD/PAGES.en/jurcyst.en.html
Thanks again to everybody who took part!
Monika Fleischmann
Research Scientist/Artistic Director
German National Research Center for Computer Science
Dept. Visualization and Media Systems Design (VMSD)
Schloss Birlinghoven, D-53754 Sankt Augustin
Phone:++49-2241-14-2809 (Fax: -2040), E-mail: fleischmann@gmd.de
http://viswiz.gmd.de/ http://viswiz.gmd.de/Ars
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220V ELECTRO CLIPS - THE PARTY EFFECT
by:Christian Moeller, with P. Kuhlmann (D) and L. P. Demers (CND)
Organisation: V2_Organisatie, Rotterdam, Holland, tel: 31-10-4046427
Contact: Marc Thelosen / Alex Adriaansens / Mart van Bree
Location: Museumpark Rotterdam, Holland
Dates: Friday night, August 11th, from 21.30 h
Saturday and Sunday, August 12th and 13th, from 12.00 h - 23.30 h
Admission free
Opening: Friday, August 11th, 21.30 h with performance by Arthur
Elsenaar at 22.00 h
As part of the Rotterdam Summer Festival 1995, V2_Organisatie will be
presenting 220 V ELECTRO CLIPS - The Party Effect on August 11th, 12th and
13th. 220V ELECTRO CLIPS is an installation in which the audience can create
a sound collage by moving through an enormous light sculpture in the
Museumpark in Rotterdam.
For the Museumpark in Rotterdam, the German artist and architect Christian
Moeller designed a light sculpture which covers an area of 60 x 60 meters.
>From eight towers of 8 meters height, 96 light beams shine through the
installation. In the floor of the sculpture, 32 sensors record changes of
light. When these light sensors are activated, they start searching radio
signals which can then be heard through a sound installation. The sounds move
through the park following certain coordinates. Audio channels interfere and
fade in and out under the influence of the audience moving through the light
sculpture. Additionally, individual visitors can trigger instruments and
various sounds through simple movements.
220V ELECTRO CLIPS is a 3D sound environment from which the audience can send
sounds through the park. It is therefore also a radio set of architectural
dimensions in which the audience determines which stations can be heard.
The first ideas for this sculpture originated from a collaboration between
Christian Moeller and the Frankfurt Ballet of William Forsyth. In 1994
Moeller, together with the Theater am Turm in Frankfurt and the first dancer
of the Frankfurt Ballet, Stephen Galloway, developed the dance and music
piece ELECTRO CLIPS, a performance in which the dancer similarly plays the
sounds of a light sculpture of theatre size.
Christian Moeller has a name both as a media artist and as a media architect.
For the front of the Zeilgalerie in Frankfurt he designed a light
installation which reacts to external factors like humidity, temperature and
light. The front of the building is thus turned into a large display of light
and colour patterns. In June, Christian Moeller received a distinction at the
Prix Ars Electronica 1995 in Linz, Austria, for the Frankfurt production
of ELECTRO CLIPS. At present he is director of Archimedia, a centre for
architecture and new media in Linz, Austria.
During the opening night on Friday, August 11th, there will be a special
performance by the Dutch artist Arthur Elsenaar. The facial muscles which
determine Elsenaar's facial expressions will be connected to Moeller's light
sculpture. Thus the audience, by activating the light sensors, will not only
steer the sound, but also the facial expressions of Elsenaar.
For more information and/or photographic material, please contact: Mart van
Bree at V2_Organisation, phone 010-4046427, fax 010-4128562.
This project has been made possible by: Rotterdam Zomerfestivals, Mondriaan
Stichting, Goethe Instituut Rotterdam and Ampco ProRent
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CONFERENCE ON ARCHITECTURE AND MEDIA INTERFACING REALITIES
Rotterdam, August 13th, 1995, from 13.00 till 18.30 hrs.
Location: V2_Organisatie, Rotterdam, Eendrachtsstr. 10
Admission: Hfl. 25,00
Tel. +31.10.404 64 27 (reservation recommended)
In 1989, the writer and philosopher, Vilem Flusser (Bra/F), suggested that in
the future we would be building houses which resemble living organisms,
including spinal columns. Until today, buildings have not been 'viable'
machines, but in the future they will quickly become viable because they are
becoming more 'intelligent'. They will become like the skin of an organism
which they will simulate through an artificial nervous system. Thus we can
see the emergence of the notion of the building as a living, organic
environment.
The technological and the biological, once regarded as opposites, are today
increasingly merging into hybrid constellations. This calls up the old
question of the definitions of life and nature, and what their relation is to
technology and culture. We can observe a shift from